After two months of restoration to repair damage from the September 2013 flood, Boulder Creek opened for paddling and floating on Friday, May 2.

On a warm day, crowds began returning the creek, riding bikes alongside and soaking bare feet in the current. A gaggle of river-lovers celebrated with a buoyant float down the probably-too-low creek. The new pedestrian bridges glinted in the sun. The stones lining the banks were freshly grouted. The whitewater playpark features and drops were freshly repaired.

Bark was stripped from creekside trees, their exposed roots clinging to bare banks. Debris remained wedged in overpass girders 15 feet above the water. The creek braided into mini-creeks as it ambled around shoals of freshly deposited stones.

Since early March, three teams have labored to repair Boulder Creek as well as the 14 other creeks that flow through the city. One removed sediment. Another raked debris from banks and beds.

The city originally planned a potential two-month closure of the creek, announcing a temporary ban on floating in the creek on April 22. By May 2nd, the park was open from Boulder Falls above Eben G. Fine Park to Arapahoe Avenue. The city has spent $3.2 million on debris and sediment removal on that stretch as well as 14 other flood-damaged creeks in the city, said city spokesman Nick Grossman. There’s more work to do further downstream.

“There are some drops that Mother Nature made better,” Lacy said. “Some of the pools and drops are way better after the flood.”

Lacy’s Recreation Engineering & Planning upgraded every feature they touched. His crew used the same rocks in the features, only they adjusted slopes and angles to make the drops more surf-friendly and less retentive.

“Used to be the goal was to just get down the creek; maybe side surf a little,” Lacy said. “Now the features are much better. We brought everything up to 2014 standards, an improvement over the original 1980 designs.”